'Their timing was perfect': Ford's deal for train station a bonus for restaurant set to open nearby

They figured old depot would be renovated, but buyer took them by surprise

Chad Livengood/Crain's Detroit Business

Cork and Gabel restaurant at 2415 Michigan Ave. in Detroit is scheduled to open by mid-August, executive chef Matthew McGrail said. That's plenty of time to get established before Ford Motor Co. renovates the nearby train station for a future autonomous vehicle development center.

When Matthew McGrail and Joe Mifsud started renovating a century-old building in Corktown, they figured the nearby Michigan Central Station would eventually be redeveloped. They hit the jackpot with their new neighbor.

Train station events

Ford Motor Co.'s weeklong spotlight of its recently purchased Michigan Central Station in Detroit begins Tuesday with a public event at 11 a.m. in front of the old depot.

The automaker has made the front of the train station look like a music festival grounds, with security fences, tents and a sound system set up for Tuesday's formal announcement of its plans for the long-vacant building and surrounding Corktown neighborhood. Or watch the announcement live here.

On Friday, Ford is planning to open the train station for a rare public open house that will run through Sunday. The free tours are set for 1-6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

When Matthew McGrail and Joe Mifsud started renovating a century-old building in October at Michigan Avenue and 16th Street for a new Irish-German-Italian fusion restaurant in Corktown, they figured the neighboring Michigan Central Station would eventually be redeveloped.

"We knew the Morouns couldn't hold on to it forever," said McGrail, executive chef and co-founder of Cork and Gabel.

But never did they imagine that a company like Ford Motor Co. would become their neighbor, promising to bring up to 5,000 workers to the Detroit neighborhood for a high-tech hub focused on building self-driving vehicles of the future.

"They've got to be thrilled. Their timing was perfect," Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said in an interview last week, while discussing the impact his company could have on redevelopment of the area.

Thrilled is an understatement, McGrail said.

"Ford is more than welcome to be our next-door neighbor," McGrail said.

Cork and Gabel

Matthew McGrail, executive chef and co-founder of Cork and Gabel restaurant, stands inside the 4,000-square-foot restaurant that's still under construction at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 16th Street in Corktown in Detroit. The German-Irish-Italian fusion resturant plans to open by mid-August, McGrail said.

Ford is set to formally announce its plans for the old train station and Corktown on Tuesday morning during a public event that could pass as a music festival staged in front of the depot at 2001 15th St. off Michigan Avenue.

In many ways, Ford's arrival could change the business calculations for restaurateurs already in Corktown and those looking to get in on the demand that's coming as the automaker hopes to renovate the train station within four years.

If just one-fifth of the white-collar workers Ford and its suppliers bring to Corktown go out to lunch every day, McGrail said, that's 1,000 new daily customers who will be wandering Michigan Avenue for a bite to eat.

"To have a heavy-hitter like Ford going in there, that's huge," McGrail said.

McGrail and Mifsud are two months away from being ready to open Cork and Gabel, a fusion restaurant with a so-called "elevated pub" fare that has already attracted local attention from the four-sided clock tower-like cupula they added to the roof of 4,450-square-foot building.

Mifsud bought the building in 1991 when the west end of Corktown was all but dead following the train station's closure in 1988.

The under-the-radar property owner held on to the building — the one-time home of a Mayflower Doughnut shop — for a generation, determined that the neighborhood where his father and grandfather owned businesses would someday come back, McGrail said.

Cork and Gabel, which is being designed by Clinton Township-based Polyarch Inc., will have seating for 108 patrons inside and a 50-seat patio during the second phase of construction. The new restaurant, 2415 Michigan Ave., is next door to the popular Two James Spirits distillery.

The restaurant has its own 65-spot parking lot along 16th Street, which will likely become a coveted parking lot for patrons once Ford's employees arrive at the depot by 2022 at the earliest.

McGrail hopes Cork and Gabel is an established eatery and watering hole by the time Ford moves in.

But he realizes four years is not that far away.

"This is going to get real," McGrail said. "And this is going to get real, real quick."